Tri-County Fly Fishers

	Tri-County Fly Fishers
Home Page

July, 2008 Edition

Welcome to the Tri-County Fly Fishers website. This Federation of Fly Fishers affiliated Club is made up of about eighty members from rank beginners to those with 50+ years of fly fishing experience. Fishing interests range from bluegills and bass to redfish and tarpon, with an occasional rainbow trout from up north thrown in. Membership is drawn from permanent and seasonal residents of those in and around the Florida counties of Lake, Marion and Sumter.	Website Updates:
	6/29	Monthly update to the Home Page. Calendar Page updated. 19 photos added to the Photo Album. One fly recipe added to the Fly Tying Page. 5 links added to the Links and Library Page.
	6/1	Monthly update to the Home Page. Calendar Page updated. 37 photos added to the Photo Album. Two items added to the Classifieds Page.
	5/4	Monthly update to the Home Page. Calendar Page updated. Ten photos added to the Photo Album. One item added to the Classifieds Page.

Please Note: Because of the Fourth Of July Holiday,
the July Breakfast has been moved out one week
to July 9th and will be at a different venue

Breakfast by the Lake. Lake Miona Park (Directions below). Starbucks coffee, doughnuts and muffins. ($2.00 per person, for those wanting coffee and such. Others can brown bag whatever they want. For reservations, contact Warren Rasmussen.) Social/coffee starts at 8:00am, business meeting around 8:45. Afterwards there will be kayaking, fly casting games and fly casting clinic. Also at this meeting, Ed Rapisardi will start another beginners/intermediate formal fly casting class. Bring lawn chairs and bug spray.

For those wishing to stay through lunch, bring your own brown bag and drink.

Visitors welcome.

Directions: From Hwy 466, take Buena Vista Boulevard south . At the third traffic circle, make a right on Rainey Trail (CR472). After about a half mile, Lake Miona Park will be on the left. Coming from Hwy 301, turn east on CR472 and go about 1-1/2 miles, Lake Miona Park is on the right.

New Feature Added To Website --
Fly Recipes from TCFF Members

In searching the Internet for fly recipes, you will find that most of the flies found are cold water flies meant for fishing north of Interstate 20. Starting now, each month the Fly Tying Page will introduce a fly recipe found successful in warm water fishing, both fresh and salt.

This month, the featured fly will be the Woolly Worm tied by Ed Russell. Woolly Worm Recipe

Holly Chain Bass

George Shilling caught this 21 inch, 3-1/4 pound bass
on the second lake of the Holly Chain
with a 3 weight rod.

Fly Fishing With Jack --
Largemouth Bass, Part 8

A couple alternate Methods of fishing for bass.

Bass lying towards the bottom go crazy over a jig that sits on the bottom for a few seconds and then suddenly jumps once or twice. With a weighted jig fly, use a floating line with a ten foot leader – allow the fly to sink to the bottom. Pause. Strip Line. Pause. This will cause the fly to jump or “jig”.

Another deadly method for bass in bottom structure is to swim a floating fly over the structure using a two-to-four foot leader on a full sinking line. The heavy line sinks causing the fly to sink with it. Each time you strip in line, the fly dives towards the bottom and then rises when you stop stripping. If you strip the fly in slowly, it swims above the structure without hanging up.

(Past articles archived in Jack's Notes.)

Maine Trip Report

Roland Bauer and Doug Dombek paid Dave Ferris a visit in Maine to partake in a Maine North Woods fishing experience. Home base was a rented house (“camp”) on Hermon Pond, near Bangor. There were fish in abundance, and the species caught included crappie, yellow perch, white perch, pumpkinseeds, black bass, and chain pickerel. “Doubles” were usually two different species. It was almost like fishing in the Gulf; you never knew what was going to be on the end of your line. And there were few if any other people fishing on the lake the whole while.

We then proceeded North to Nesowadnehunk Lake Campground and a rented cabin for three days. The lake abuts the Western edge of Baxter State Park -home of Mount Katahdin, the terminus of the Appalachian Trail-and is loaded with a pure strain of eastern brook trout. (Fly Fishing Only.) The fly of choice was an orange Maple Syrup (the normal color is tan). The weather turned from hot, to cold and windy, but the trout were usually in a biting mood and always tasted great right out of the pan. We had trout for breakfast each day, and even had trout for breakfast, lunch and dinner one day!

Then back to Hermon Pond for three more days of fishing. Fathers Day brought rain, so we took a little side trip to a Lobster Pound for a phenomenal meal, and finished that off with Maine blueberry ice cream in Bar Harbor. By the time the trip ended and we had to return to Florida, thanks largely to Davey’s hospitality and guiding, we had had a most excellent Maine fishing adventure. -- Doug Dombek

"Everyone ought to believe in something; I believe I'll go fishing." -- Unknown

St. Cloud Barramundi Trip Report

After a bad day of fishing, the old saying goes, “Well, if you were catching fish, it wouldn’t be called fishing!” Down at the barramundi fish farm southeast of St. Cloud, it is definitely “catching”.

Larry Semple and George Hintz spent a couple hours with Captain Randy Dumars June 19th fly fishing on the fish ponds. The day started out cloudy and rainy then cleared up to just cloudy. For the first half-hour, Larry and George fished with chartreuse clousers and each caught three fish, then they switched to what looked like a brown spun hair fly imitation of the food pellets the farm feeds the fish. By chumming the water with a handful of feed, the fish would go into a feeding frenzy – drop your fly in the middle and the fight was on.

All in all, each caught something like twenty barramundi with the average weight around nine pounds. They had a great time but both were pretty much worn out in only two hours of fishing. Figuring each fish took an average of five minutes to fight that would be 100 minutes of 120 minutes fighting fish for each fisherman! (Barramundi are a snook-like fish imported from Australia and are farmed just like catfish.

For those of you planning on going out there, here are some tips and comments:

As the fish have very sharp gill plates (just like snook), do not handle the fish! There is a guide for every four fisherman with Boga Grips to land and unhook the fish for you.
Minimum fly rod size is an 8 weight with floating line – having a fighting butt is a plus. Need at least 150 feet of backing. Bring a extra spool of line as the fish can get your line wrapped around the anchor cables of the floating aerators and cost you a fly line. When picking a spot to fish, keep the aerators at a distance.
Make sure your reel’s drag works – you will be into the backing soon enough with a tight drag. No drag could result in no fish and no line!
As the strike is very hard, line management is very important. Having the line wrapped around you foot, your reel or the tip of your rod would not be good when the fish strikes. Be especially careful not to have your fingers tangled in the line.
Tippet is 60 pound test monofilament. As the fish have very abrasive mouth, the tippet has to be replaced or shortened after about every five to seven fish.
As is the norm here in Florida, sunscreen and a hat, as a minimum, are needed.
On the day fished, there were no mosquitoes, but there were a few pesky horseflies so insect repellent is recommended.
The files used were chartreuse (which seems to be the favorite color of the fish) Clousers and flies which look like their feed (floating pellets, dark brown, about 5/8” in diameter and 5/8” long.). Hook size 2-to-1/0 with barb bent down as these are catch-and-release ponds. (They will hit floating flies, bass poppers, etc., also.)
The berms between the ponds are flat-topped maybe fifteen-to-twenty feet wide. Walking is easy, but, even though the farm spreads Amdro around, there are occasional fire ant mounds to watch out for.
If you cannot stand for long periods of time, you can bring lawn chairs. (The ponds have even been fished by people in wheelchairs.)
Bring something to drink.
There are port-a-potties on the site.
Last, but not least, bring a camera.

The Club welcomes any questions, comments, complaints, ideas, whatever -- just contact us at contacttcff@aol.com.

--------- Fishin' Buddy Program ---------

Based on a program set up by the Mangrove Coast Fly Fishers to encourage its boat owners to go fly fishing with those who do not have access to boats, the TCFF is modifying its Fishin’ Buddy Program to be less restrictive as to when and where members fish.

The Captains signing up will be acknowledged at the Breakfast and Evening meetings and on the TCFF Website. It will be up to the Club Member (the Mate) wanting to fish to contact the captain, compare fishing styles, etc., and, by mutual agreement, whether or not to fish.
(As always, it is appropriate to share expenses.)

Captain Gary Christie	Days available for fishing: Monday and Friday
352-347-5735	15' bass boat
Areas Fished: Local Lakes

Captain Bill Kirchner	Days available for fishing: Sunday, Wednesday, and Thursday
352-751-1895	16.5 ft Fisher
Areas Fished: Harris Chain of Lakes

Captain Ed Russell	Days available for fishing: All week
352-751-2384	Pontoon Boat
Areas Fished: Ocklawaha River and Lake Griffin

Captain Bob Strunc	Days available for fishing: Tuesday and Friday
352-787-6449	Grumman 17' bass boat w/50 HP
Areas Fished: Lake Harris

For information or to sign-up as Captain, contact Ed Russell at 751-2384.

--------- Fresh Water and Saltwater Fishing Trips---------
Cancelled for July and August because
of the heat and unpredictable weather.

Near Term Calendar (For long term calendar with full details, Click Here.)

July 8 (Tuesday) -- TCFF Adopt-A-Lake Program/Lake Griffin. 9:00 am at Morgan's Marina. For more information.
July 9 (Wednesday) -- Different Date and Locale -- Monthly Breakfast Meeting -- Breakfast by the Lake . Lake Miona Park.
July 19 (Wednesday) -- 3rd Wednesday Evening Meeting. 7:00pm at the Oxford Community Center. Topic to be determined.
July 22-26, 2008 -- 43rd Annual Federation of Fly Fishers International Fly Fishing Show (Conclave). Whitefish, Montana.
August 6 (Wednesday) -- Monthly Breakfast Meeting. Taste Tempter Pancake Inn, Leesburg.
August 20 (Wednesday) -- 3rd Wednesday Evening Meeting. 7:00pm at the Oxford Community Center. Topic to be determined.